From reading the comments, the cover art has certainly drawn some interesting views...

Incidentally have the test pressings sold out at $290 a pop? I looked on the website and couldn’t see the Add to cart option. Normally a web page would say sold out or this item is no longer available. Anyone bought one?

The packages don’t really hold any interest - I can’t say I’m bothered about a patch or socks or hat. And I wonder why the CDs are only signed by Elvis. Other more recent releases have been credited to Elvis Costello so that’s fair enough but this is also The Imposters. Plenty of other bands have all members sign the CD - I have signed CDs of The Fratellis, Kasabian and Haim for example.

verbal gymnastics wrote:Incidentally have the test pressings sold out at $290 a pop? I looked on the website and couldn’t see the Add to cart option. Normally a web page would say sold out or this item is no longer available. Anyone bought one?

I checked earlier today and the test pressing was indeed flagged "sold out". I'm sure those 50 folks are well pleased with their purchase.

MOJO wrote:Driving back from the beach to the airport for a flight to SF, WXPN’s Dan Reed played Unwanted Number. So cool! It’s XPN’s “Gotta Hear” song of the week Nice. Sounds great on the radio! (Old school)

Nice! Love me some XPN. They're the one Philly radio station I listen to exclusively, and also donate to. They've always been huge supporters of EC.

Elvis Costello will release his next album, titled Look Now, on October 12th. This work is co-produced by Argentinian Sebastian Krys, who lives in the United States and has won several Grammys, who answered some questions exclusively for Rock & Pop.

R & P: You have a lot of experience in producing Spanish-speaking artists. How did you come across Elvis Costello to co-produce his new album?

Sebastian Krys: I met him ten years ago in Miami when he was making music for a ballet. One of the band's musicians, Dan Warner, introduced it to me. We made a couple of collaborations with La Santa Cecilia and him, and also with the Spanish artist Vega. I worked a lot with his longtime drummer, Pete Thomas, and his bassist Davey Faragher. When this album came up, Pete recommended that he work with me and he thought the idea was interesting.

R & P: How was the experience of co-producing Look Now?

SK: I've been a fan of Elvis Costello since I was in college, so for me it was fulfilling a dream: he's one of my favorite artists and being able to see and be part of his process was amazing. Beyond being a great artist is a great human being. He always tells me that he really wants to play in Argentina.

R & P: Can you give us a preview of what we are going to find in Elvis Costello's new album, beyond the advances that have already been published?

SK: I'll let him tell you and show, but I do think it's a record that no other artist has the ability to write or do. It is a unique musical perspective.

R & P: What music do you listen to when you do not have to work?

SK: Lately I listen to 60s soul and blues.

R & P: With which artists would you like to work in the future?

SK: I think it's interesting what's happening with the trap in Argentina; I would like to get more into that. I have always worked on very diverse projects, but I think that when a genre captures so much of the youth, it is necessary to pay attention and learn.

This guy needs to shut down his YouTube channel and retool or edit or just shut up or something... Just one human's opinion. On the surface, he should get rid of his intro. I'll leave the rest of the review to other board folk. I'm too critical and clueless, I guess.

I'll hunt it out later but somewhere in the narrative about Elvis & Burt & the fax machine is a incidental detail about Carole King. In 1995 Elvis was supporting Dylan and when the tour finished in Dublin the great and the good joined Mr D for a finale. Bono, Van etc. , including Ms King who was living there at the time. Elvis was supposed to be dashing home to fax/phone BB, multiple time zones away in California. However , in a mishap in the green room after the show, Ms King broke her arm. So things got delayed as that got sorted out

And it's so 100 % Costello, no one else in music could write such a miracle of a song. After 500, maybe even 600 songs of his, how is he able to deliver this, being so much of a Costello song and still not coming even a tiniest bit close to repeating himself?!!And it's so bouncing of melody, of hook lines, of marvelous sounds, of lyricism, this strong bassline right from the start, that jingling piano running through all of it, his voice stretching from the lowest to the highest register, that Bacharach-like bridge that leads right into that wonderfully joyous and surprising brass and choir and and and, I don't know where to stop, I'm completely drawn in by that song.

And this along with such an elegant and self-reliant production style, so much aware of what this song is supposed to sound like, no fuzz, no show-off, no tricks. And ist DOES sound like it is supposed to sound. There is just one other actual song that has this similar quality in confidence of its production: Mc Cartneys new nearly classic "I don't know". Same class. Same mastery.

And through this song, we experience the wonder of music again. Just 2 weeks ago, I was living a life without even one little clue of these melodies within this one little new song, not mentioning the words, the lines, the phrases. Last weekend I was spending two days hiking in the Alps and not getting enough of all these newly found and memorized bits of music and words of "Under Lime", constantly repeating itself inside my brain, already having become a part of my life, so that I could never again imagine myself of having to live without it.

What a wonder! Thank you Elvis.

Last edited by taramasalata on Tue Aug 14, 2018 3:51 am, edited 2 times in total.